Bath CAZ 2026: Cars Pay Nothing, Vans Pay £9 a Day
Clean Air Zone (Class C) · United Kingdom · Active since 2021
Source: official source · Verified: 2026-09-19
Bath charges commercial traffic only: cars and motorbikes are never charged, at any age. A non-compliant van or taxi pays £9 a day, an HGV or coach £100, and an unpaid day becomes a £120 penalty.
The payment window is wider than drivers expect — six days before the journey, the day itself, and up to 23:59 on the sixth day after. There is nothing to buy in advance and nothing to display; for a car there is nothing to pay at all.
Locally the zone is called Clean Air Zone Bath (United Kingdom) — that is the wording on the boundary signs, on the official portal and on any penalty notice, so it is the phrase to search for once you are there.
Next
- Check your own car against Bath — enter your fuel and Euro class, get a yes or no in one step.
- Bristol has a zone too — the nearest one to Bath, and the rules are not identical.
- If a fine arrives after you get home — who pays on a hire car, and what is actually enforceable across borders.
Practical answers for Bath
- When is the Bath zone active?
- 24/7 That means there is no free window — the restriction applies on Sundays and public holidays too.
- How much does it cost to drive into Bath?
- GBP 9/day for vans, LGVs, minibuses, taxis and private hire; GBP 100/day for HGVs, buses and coaches; cars and motorcycles free · CAZ compliant Get it wrong and the penalty is GBP 120, reduced to GBP 60 if paid within 14 days of service and raised to GBP 180 if unpaid after 28 days — commercial vehicles only; cars and motorcycles are never charged.
- Do I need to register or buy anything first?
- CAZ compliant
- Who is exempt in Bath?
- Electric vehicles, Disabled tax class vehicles, Military vehicles and Historic vehicles (1977 or older). Exemptions are usually not automatic — most require registering your number plate in advance.
Bath Clean Air Zone (Class C) Map
Interactive map of the zone location — zoom in to see the streets around the marker, and confirm the exact boundary signs on arrival.
Requirements
Who pays in a hire car, whether insurance covers it, and how to appeal.
Can My Vehicle Enter Bath?
Select your fuel type and Euro emission class to check instantly.
Exemptions
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Bath & North East Somerset Council leaves no room for doubt: “Cars and motorbikes are not charged in Bath’s CAZ, regardless of the emissions they produce.” It is a Class C zone, which under the national framework covers buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, HGVs, vans and minibuses — and stops there. Non-compliant vans, taxis and minibuses owe £9 a day, HGVs, buses and coaches £100. An unpaid day becomes a £120 penalty, £60 if you settle within 14 days and £180 if it is still outstanding after 28.
| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Zone type | Clean Air Zone — Class C |
| Cars and motorbikes | Not charged, at any age or emission level |
| Daily charge | GBP 9 vans, LGVs, minibuses, taxis and private hire; GBP 100 HGVs, buses, coaches |
| Chargeable standard | Euro 6 diesel / Euro 4 petrol (commercial vehicles only) |
| Penalty | GBP 120, halved to GBP 60 within 14 days, raised to GBP 180 after 28 |
| Payment window | 6 days before, the day itself, until 23:59 on the 6th day after |
| Operating hours | Midnight to midnight, 7 days a week, all year |
| Zone size | 1.2 square miles around the centre |
| Active since | 15 March 2021 |
Who actually pays in Bath
Bath’s zone is 1.2 square miles around the centre, launched on 15 March 2021 and running midnight to midnight, every day of the year. Because Georgian Bath funnels traffic through a handful of streets, almost every visitor route crosses it — which is why the class matters so much more than the boundary.
Cars: nothing to do
Category M1 vehicles are outside the charge. The council spells out that this holds “even if they are used for work”, so a sole trader’s estate car is treated like a holiday hire car. No payment, no registration, no exemption to claim. A camper van built on a car base is in the same position; a heavier motorhome registered as a goods vehicle is not.
Commercial vehicles: two rates
- £9 a day — vans and light goods vehicles, minibuses, taxis and private hire vehicles.
- £100 a day — buses, coaches and HGVs.
- £100, or £9 once registered — a privately owned heavy goods vehicle.
A vehicle only pays if it falls below the chargeable standard: Euro 6 on diesel, Euro 4 on petrol. Put the council’s way, the charge lands on “Euro 1-5/V diesel and Euro 1 to 3 petrol (or earlier)”.
Paying, and the deadline
Check and pay through gov.uk/clean-air-zones with the registration number — it is the only place to pay, and third-party sites add a markup for nothing. The window runs from six days before your journey to 23:59 on the sixth day after it. A single transaction is capped at £5,000, so fleets paying in bulk have to split payments.
If a charge goes unpaid
A £120 penalty charge notice follows. Pay within 14 days of service and the council takes £60, half the penalty, though the outstanding daily charge is still owed on top. Leave both for 28 days and the penalty rises to £180.
What catches people out
Assuming Bath works like Birmingham or Bristol. Those are class D zones and they do charge cars; Bath does not. The word “CAZ” on a road sign tells you nothing about whether your car is in scope.
Assuming a camper van is a car. It depends on how the vehicle is registered, not on what it looks like on the drive.
Confusing Bath’s scheme with London’s. London runs ULEZ and a separate Congestion Charge; neither shares Bath’s rules, rates or deadlines.
Leave the car outside
London’s Tube and bus network covers everything. Outside London, most cities have bus and tram systems. Contactless bank cards work on almost all UK public transit — no need for special tickets.
Park & Ride is a British institution. Most cities have at least two P+R sites on the outskirts with regular bus service into the center. It’s cheaper and less stressful than city center parking.
Consider renting a bike. In Bath the centre is small enough to cross on foot in twenty minutes, and the park-and-ride sites on the edge of the city spare you the hunt for a space.
More on driving rules, speed limits, and equipment requirements: Driving in United Kingdom. For seasonal tyre regulations: United Kingdom tyre laws.
Driving in Bath — Quick Reference
| Service | Number |
|---|---|
| General emergency | 112 |
| Police | 999 |
| Ambulance | 999 |
| Fire | 999 |
Recent changes to this page
- Verified against bathnes.gov.uk and gov.uk: the charge table (£9 vans, taxis and minibuses / £100 HGVs, buses and coaches), the £120 penalty halved to £60 within 14 days and rising to £180 after 28, and the 23:59 six-day payment deadline. Removed the sticker and daily-charge wording that implied private cars pay.
- Title, description and introduction rewritten from this page's own data (no shared template wording).
- Re-verified Bath CAZ remains Class C (commercial vehicles only) — private cars still free. GBP 100 daily charge for non-compliant HGVs, taxis and LGVs confirmed via bathnes.gov.uk.
- Added clarification: private cars, motorbikes and camper vans under 3.5t are NOT charged in Bath's CAZ — only commercial vehicles are in scope.
- Fourth anniversary of Bath CAZ launch (March 2021) — confirmed no expansion to include private cars planned for 2026.
Part of the TyreMap Emission-Zone Dataset — 596 verified European emission zones, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Frequently Asked Questions
There is nothing to display and nothing to register. Bath reads number plates with cameras. For a car it does not matter what the camera sees — the council states that "cars and motorbikes are not charged in Bath's CAZ, regardless of the emissions they produce".
Nothing. Bath is a Class C zone, which covers buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, HGVs, vans and minibuses — cars are not in that class. The council extends this to any vehicle in category M1, "even if they are used for work".
£9 a day for a non-compliant van, light goods vehicle, minibus, taxi or private hire vehicle, and £100 a day for a coach, bus or HGV. A privately owned heavy goods vehicle pays £100 unless it is registered, which brings it down to £9.
The chargeable standard is Euro 6 for diesel and Euro 4 for petrol. The council puts the same point the other way round — charges fall on "Euro 1-5/V diesel and Euro 1 to 3 petrol (or earlier)". Cars sit outside this test entirely.
Thirteen days in all: up to six days before the journey, the day of entry, and until 23:59 on the sixth day after. Miss that and a £120 penalty charge notice follows, cut to £60 if paid within 14 days of service, and raised to £180 if the fine and the outstanding charge are still unpaid after 28 days.
Yes. An ultra low emission vehicle, a disabled or disabled passenger tax class vehicle, a military vehicle, a historic vehicle and a vehicle retrofitted under the CVRAS accreditation scheme are all exempt nationally, and the council runs its own local exemption and discount list on top.
For a car, nothing happens, because there is no charge to miss. For a chargeable vehicle the penalty reaches you as it would a British keeper — through the rental company if the vehicle is hired, or by post to the registered keeper. This country sits outside the EU's cross-border traffic-offence system, so an unpaid charge cannot be pursued through a court at home; collection agencies do trace overseas keepers, and an old debt can resurface on a return visit.